Radical Welfare Benefits Blog

And we're back! Yes it's yet another pension blog.  I'm sorry but I really don't have any choice because the level of understanding on the topic is just horrific. It's bad enough MPs spouting nonsense but the feedback I'm getting from so many people just shows that I need to go back to basics on a few issues.  I'm grateful to some friends and former workmates on Twitter and Scotland in Union for their feedback which has helped me to create this blog.   Don't worry I'm not going to set out this blog as a pensions seminar, instead I'm going to take Philippa Whitford's assertion of pension policy at face value and show why it just doesn't work.   I'm fully aware that whatever I write here isn't going to be comfortable for nationalists to hear, it's also not going to sound as neat and tidy as the lies they've been told about pensions. I also understand that, when you spent the independence campaign claiming it was Bett

I've blogged on pensions time and time again, but in all cases when it came to dealing with the SNP and pensions it was dog whistle politics, innuendo or sleight of hand. After all it would be difficult to pin anyone in the SNP actually saying that the UK would fund Scottish pensions in the event of independence. Sure there was a lot of pointing to a letter that turned out to be wrong and a casual nod towards Steve Webb's evidence to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee all designed to give the impression that the UK might fund pensions without actually saying it.  The SNP are clever that way. There is a reason they were never explicit of course. The continuing UK wouldn't fund pensions in an independent Scotland. Both sides agreed on this. Let me say that again. Both sides agreed on this. The SNP's own p aper on pensions and their white paper were explicit on it. Therefore for the SNP to state that cUK would be funding pensions for Scots would be a hu

Richard Murphy had a bad introduction to Scottish politics. He blundered into GERS in a blog and Twitter and rapidly had to backtrack on his assertions about it. Since then he's been on a mission to dig himself out of the hole, that rarely works in my experience.  His latest attempt was an article in the National, and if it was an attempt to leap out of the hole then he's currently lying in a heap at the bottom nursing a sore ankle. If you have arrived here it may well be because you have decided to cite this article by Murphy as a counter-point to GERS. I'm sorry but you are going to be disappointed. To be valid a counter-point in a debate needs to say something of substance, as you'll soon see the article doesn't actually do that and in fact ties itself up in knots.   Let me put it this way if you were looking to cite Richard Murphy and his National article you have just turned up to a gun fight armed with a plastic spoon. HAD a meeting with a number of the

It's always tempting to update the polling trend numbers I analyse as soon as a new poll comes out. I'm glad I didn't do that, else I would be firing our a blog about twice a week on the topic continually updating the narrative as the latest numbers shifted.  I'm a great fan of slow journalism  (if you don't subscribe you really should) it's a wonderful publication that explains the benefits of writing news stories and opinion pieces well after the event rather than in the heat of the moment. In politics, business and life the 24 hour news cycle often doesn't help and can often mean you attribute far too much importance to the latest change in the story rather than the story itself.  With the announcements of last week were designed to change the narrative for the SNP. This was their big play, this was the attempt to paint the Tories into the corner to "block the will of the people". From my active days on twitter I know many nationalists who w

I've written previously about the mess the SNP are going to get themselves into when it comes to explaining why it's bad to l ose trade with the EU but not with the UK , we're only just starting to see the reality of that mess and it came in a car crash interview with SNP MP Eilidh Whiteford on Channel 4 news.  You can watch the entire car crash here , but I thought it was so enlightening I transcribed the entire interview because it's even more remarkable when written down.  A few points to note. There are of course lots of "ums and ehs" in a down the line interview but the number of "you knows" here is quite remarkable, perhaps that's a consequence of an SNP MP only speaking to like minded individuals - or maybe it's just a stress coping strategy.  However the key point is Krishnan Grur Murthy  saying "Sounds like you don't have an answer". They don't have an answer because all the remain EU rhetoric is not coming